More Special DS Love for Japan

JAPAN GAMING SCENE: Japan loves their Nintendo DS's.

During my last visit their this spring, every games and electronics store I went to was sold out of the little Nintendo device that some people jokingly say "prints money." With Japan lapping up DSes as fast as Nintendo can churn them up, Nintendo is showing its home market much love with a new DS that's so shockingly bright, I wouldn't be surprised if it could power solar devices just from its sheen.

Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu reports that Ninty is releasing a new "Pikachu Edition" of its popular handheld that channels the bright yellow colors of its popular electric rat, er, mouse. The new color commemorates the move of its Pokemon Center Tokyo store from its Nihonbashi site to the new Hamamatsucho site on July 20. That's right, while the US still wallows in its piddling assortment of DS colors, Japan is getting yet another special color, this one just to commemorate a store move.

It looks like members of Japan's "Pokemon Daisuki Club" (or I Really Love Pokemon Club) also have a chance to win a free one in a raffle. I don't know if I'd be caught dead with a Pikachu DS but I have a feeling a lot of Japanese won't have that same problem.

All Poked Out

OH NO WE’RE SUCKED AGAIN!
Hi, my name is Shingenmochi and I’m a recovering Pokeholic.

Several years ago when gas prices didn’t require selling your first-born child, my elementary-school age cousins thought it would be neat to challenge their cool gaming cousin (I know this may be hard to believe, but that would be me) to Pokemon battles. I laughed and told them playing Pokemon at my age would make me their uncool cousin.

Then one of them made a smart-alec comment about beating me in the game so — being the mature adult in the group — I bought the latest Pokemon game and dedicated the next month to crushing their little, pre-pubescent Pokemon dreams. I read up on EV training online and proceeded to burn, spike, poison, paralyze and crush their poor, overmatched Pokemon and … wait, wait, wait for it … BUWAHAHA!!! I may not be the best, second best or even 1 millionth best Pokemon player in the world but I should at least beat a couple of gradeschoolers.

Then I realized that grown women likely don’t want to date grown men playing Pokemon so I quit cold turkey. Undefeated and with my point already made to my shell-shocked cousins, I bade farewell to my Blaziken — “Crispy” — and other beloved monsters, swearing to never touch Pokemon again.

Fast forward to the present and we now have Nintendo’s newest Pokemon offerings, Diamond and Pearl. Even with new features such as online battling and trading, I was still safely on the wagon. Then one of the little punks said he could beat me now, just cause he’s older. I bought two games — one for me and one for my kissing cousins, just so I can crush them again BUWAHAHA!!! I think I might need an intervention in a few weeks.

For the complete Pokemon rundown, check this review.

The Phenomenon of the Relaxing Bear

MEANWHILE, BACK IN REALITY: “Ooh, he’s so cute!” gushed two Japanese girls who stood right next to me. For the first time in my life, I finally felt what it must be like to be Brad Pitt or David Beckham. And it felt good.

Then I turned around.

Turns out they were fawning over a variety of products featuring mascot “Rilakkuma,” whose name is based on a Japanese play on words that translates to “Relaxing Bear”. I feel like a kid who just dropped my ice cream and lost my balloon at the same time.

So maybe, just maybe, my mother was lying during all those times she said I was cute. Like a man who got jilted by a pretty girl at a party for a more popular guy, I resented Rilakkuma. Just look at him with his cute face. And his cute mouth. And his cute ears. And his cute little tail.

Oh, who am I kidding, I can’t possibly hate Rilakkuma. How can you hate something that’s just so gawsh-darned cute? It doesn’t hurt that Rilakkuma is such an easygoing fellow. Most of his renditions have him lying down, usually next to a cute chick. That sounds like every guy’s dream right there. Forget Brad Pitt and David Beckham, I wanna be Rilakkuma.

Featured above is but one of the gajillion Rilakkuma merchandise from one of my favorite stores in Tokyo, Yamashiroya by Ueno Station. Recently, Rilakkuma T-shirts have also become available in Japan, much to the delight of many Japanese girls who may or may not think I’m cute. Given the popularity of Japanese-style shirts like Tokidoki among young American women, you might want to hunt a Rilakkuma T-shirt down as a present — especially since I’m hearing complaints from my sister’s friends that Tokidoki’s everywhere now (Heaven forbid a fashion-forward woman shows up in the same shirt as everyone else).

The problem, of course, is finding a Rilakkuma shirt. I was in Japan last April and it was hard to find even there. All I can say is, my sister better be grateful. She can repay me by asking her friends to giggle and tell me I’m cute.

Searching for Oscar the Grouch

TIME FOR SOME TRASH TALKING: If Oscar the Grouch ever decides to get a Muppet passport and fly to Japan, I have a feeling he might feel just a tad out of place. That's because for a country so impeccably clean, Japan has nary a trash can in sight.

Indeed, most of my walking jaunts in Tokyo typically end with my pockets filled with gum wrappers, pieces of paper, used up train cards and whatever junk happens to pile up in my possession during the day. Let's just say Oscar would be a lot grouchier in Nippon if he forgets to include his trash can in his check-in luggage.

This is just one of the many reasons why I love Japanese convenience stores — which I plan to wax poetic about in a future column. Like three wise kings open 24 hours a day, 7-Eleven, ampm and Lawson always bear me gifts in the form of receptacles for my PET bottles, aluminum cans and pieces of paper. My guess is Oscar would dive straight into the trash bin for burnables.

Then again, when you have about half of the U.S. population squeezed into an area slightly smaller than California, you'd probably be conscientious about your trash dumping habits, too. One of the great things about Japan's sparsity of places to dump your junk is that it made me realize just how much garbage I produce — and I'm quite tame compared to some people I know. I haven't thought much about the environmental impact of garbage since, well, I was at that age when I used to watch Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street. And as someone who studied for three years in Manila, I know full well the consequences of not being obsessive-compulsive with your trash management.

So maybe it's not such a bad idea to wean Oscar the Grouch off his trash habit and make him a more responsible member of society. To wean him off his trash dependence, I suggest doing what I did the first time I visited Tokyo: invest in a good pair of cargo pants.

So this is what they call "blogging"

DUM-DEE-DUM-DUM: Sometime last year, I came across a startling revelation. Apparently, I was the last human being on Earth without a blog.

"Yeah, I was just talking about that in my blog," I often heard.

Friends, family members, my brother's cat, that guy asking me for money while I walked down the street — everyone seemed to have a blog except me. Maybe it's because I viewed the vast majority of blogs the same way that the "book editor" in my paper viewed the self-published works that were magnificently deposited by her desk from time to time. Let's just say she'd be a good model for Edvard Munch.

Then again, that was the old, elitist MainStreamMedia cog in me. I used to wonder who could be possibly interested in listening to the random ramblings of a nobody like yours truly. But after seeing many of my print media colleagues get the axe, I'm hoping more than ever that there are kind benefactors out there in the Pacman Jones mold who like showering blogging nobodies with dollar bills.

Seriously, though, I'm just trying to find more productive ways to pass my time. If, by some miracle, you run across this blog, thank you for reading this far. Remember, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I originally planned on making this site a receptacle for my musings on things related to Japan. But it's just so hard to limit such a worldly specimen as yours truly. OK, so I simply don't have a plan on what I really want to do. But for a blog with zero hits, does that really matter in the grand scheme of things?

For now, let's just celebrate the momentous occasion that is the last guy on Earth without a blog finally having his own little corner in the blogosphere.